If you shoot weddings then you’ll love this engagement film shot by up and comer Ryan of Iris and Light. Utilizing the creative possibilities of the Canon 5D Mark II, Ryan I believe is pushing the envelope of the wedding videography industry. This video has it all, location, beautiful couple, lighting, great camera movement and coloring. Ryan was kind enough to share a write-up with us detailing his production:

Here is his write-up:
In the past, I have seen and shot many engagement videos which contain your standard lovey-dovey shots mixed with interview footage of the bride and groom. Those were good times and people really appreciated it. But I realized that you can tell so much more of a story if you can capture the right moment of how they look at each other or see how he gently holds her hand. There’s a magic there and that has been my aim since I started this feature of engagement films.

Tools used in this film: The 5DM2, a custom built slider, tripods, single camera light, Glidecam HD 2000, and a crane. 

Here’s a little more detail about each. At the time of the shooting, I believe I had my camera settings set to Portrait mode. It was less saturated than the standard mode and since I knew this piece wasn’t going to be super colorful I didn’t want a lot saturation. Since this shoot I have adjusted more of the settings to not use so much sat, contrast, and sharpness. But I find it wise to use the settings you know fits best for what you are shooting and to become familiar with these options. After a wile you can tell all the folks who shoot in standard mode on the 5DM2, which is fine, it’s just not my style.

Having a slider has been a killer add-on to my arsenal. I checked out a few sites and even used a friends Indieslider Pro. Then I came across this other forum that had in depth instructions on how to make your own. Google Zaza slider. I consider myself a handyman so I went for it. For a fraction of the cost I made my own version which I love. It’s stable, and with a few custom mods, I made it easily portable, just the right length, and versatile to add to my tripod and keep shooting with quick releases on top and under it. It’s a great tool. 

I pretty much used my Bogen tripod with the 501 head the whole time. It was the support for the slider and crane. 

I hardly used any lighting on this shoot to light the subjects at all. If anything, I used the light to put behind them to create a nice hair light. You’ll see it in the night shots by the trains, but it also helps and was only possible since I was able to shoot in the F1.8 range. There were street lights all around that really helped, but it sucked all the colors out of everything and made it look like real life sepia toned stuff, so I had to try and bring back what I could, but figured it went along with the vibe. 

The Glidecam was only used for a few shots during the day. Hand held, nothing too fancy. Other times if I feel like I needed a similar shot that’s smooth, I would do what I’ve practiced for years by holding steady the neck of my tripod and do the cool heel-toe-roll. One crucial note is that any lens with IS (image stabilization) really helps. I was really happy when Phillip Bloom made the comment that Canon should reconsider making fast lenses with IS for video production hoping they would listen to him. BUt that may be a few years down the road. Any any rate, you can pull of a fake smooth shot on a tripod if you got the walk, steady arm, and an IS lens.

Cobra Crane. Let me just say that this shoot was done solo. So lugging all this gear around produced a serious amount of sweat, and took time. The crane took the most time to work out. Setting up, moving around… in fact, I was supposed to do the night shots around sunset, but so much time was spent with the crane that it put us way behind. In the end, I am very happy the way it turned out and I love the shots I got with it. There’s a whole new level of cinematic vibe you can create by getting crane shots.

Post Production:  Final Cut Pro, Apple Color, Cinema Tools
This is one of my first times I decided to shoot 30p and conform to 24 with Cinema Tools. I love the look. It’s not too slo mo that it looks cheesy, and it adds an element of dreaminess. You have to know Cinema Tools before taking this plunge or you may find yourself stuck in place where you have to edit the rest of your stuff in 24 mixed with 30. Just a precautionary note. Duplicate your footage, then conform.

All my grading is done in Apple Color. It’s hard to pin it down since I approach each project with fresh eyes, or at least I try to. Although, to keep my style somewhat similar to the next I guess I do have some patterns I follow. I always use the Primary and Secondary rooms in Color. I don’t go to the FX room. The Secondary rooms have so many options that pretty much anything can be done there. It’s also nice to be able to copy a grade and paste it into another clip from the same scene. The 5DM2 can put out some serious colors with some dark blacks, which can be cool, but I try and get away from that. I think everyone has a style they are comfortable with and this one fits my taste. I usually tone down the saturations, warm it up, and mess with the blacks. Usually though there’s something somewhere in the background of my shots or something that just sticks out like a sore thumb. I think the trick is to eliminate distracting elements so that the rest can mesh better together. For example, I spend time removing a hot pink scarf on a lady in the background, or a red car, the kind of stuff that drags your eye away to. In this shoot, the opening shots at the beginning were in a field where half the brush growth was green. I love green, but it just wasn’t a color I wanted in this film. So Color allowed me to make the greens match the dead grass colors so it wouldn’t distract from my overall desired look. Blue is also a sharp contrast color to red so without boosting the red to try and overpower the blue, I just took took the blues down in the sky, blanket and jeans to make the red leaves/flowers she had pop a little more. Color is great, I love it and all that you can do with it. 

Also be sure to check out his other work on Vimeo.

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